Nearly all human societies use fermentation to produce alcoholic drinks such as beer and wine. The practice dates back to the earliest days of agriculture. How do you suppose this use of fermentation was first discovered? Why did wine prove to be a more useful beverage, especially to a preindustrial culture, than the grape juice from which it was made?

This sounds like a homework question.

Ok, I'll help a tiny bit. For the fermentation discovery thing, think about it. You're a cavewoman who has picked fruit from the trees around the cave. You stored the fruit in the tanned deerskin your SO had killed. The fruit wasn't eaten fast enough and, even though the cave is cool inside, the fruit began to go bad and juices leaked to the bottom of the deer skin. In disgust, you decided to dump the spoiled mess into the bushes. Some of the juice splashed onto your hand and made it sticky. Not bothering to walk down to the creek to wash your hands, you licked your fingers. Wowie! That tasted good--very powerful! Hmmmmmm.

Now, why was wine a more useful beverage to a preindustrial society than grape juice? -- think about the quality of water they had to drink and about the natural sources for it and how far people had to go to get water and bring it back to their homes. Think about drinking grape juice all the time and how available it was and how quickly it would go bad. Think about the advantages of wine over water and grape juice.

Now, read your textbook or the suggested books for this lesson. What did you find out?

I agree with Wondergirl.

Also, I've seen robins get completely drunk on berries fermenting right on the bush--that happens.

Plus, I had a jar of jam once that started to ferment and became extremely alcoholic. It was just infected by the right germs just by chance. Because they took over, no other germs could grow there. This is a little embarrassing, but I still have that jar of jam! I sometimes add more jam to it and it just keeps fermenting and it has never molded or spoiled. It's been years. I don't actually eat it, of course. I just think it's funny to show people... I open the lid and all these alcoholic fumes come out. :)

That's cool. Thanks guys. That helped a lot. :)